Friday, 24 June 2011

Here's a little something that might interest you. Mark "Marty" Rathbun is one of Scientology's most high-profile defectors, having been Inspector General of its Religious Technology Center (intriguingly he still believes in Scientology itself, merely viewing the official version as having been corrupted by the current leader David Miscavige), and since he left the Church he was been gradually spilling the beans (or at least portions of the beans) on his blog.

In his latest post, Rathbun has shared a PDF which he says is a document circulated by the Church's Office of Special Affairs (something he describes as "the Stasi-like intelligence network of the cult of Miscavige"), dated 22 January 2010, which lists all the people considered persona non grata at the grand openings of new Scientology facilities in the western United States. Basically, as other media outlets have been pointing out, it's a Scientology "enemies list".

Looking through it, in addition to famous names such as Hollywood defectors Paul Haggis and Jason Beghe, I was pleased to see that the list features three people who I've interviewed during my time at New Humanist – the seasoned Scientology-watcher Mark Bunker and ex-member Tory Christman, who were both interviewed in my 2008 piece on the rise of the Anonymous movement, and Marc Headley, another defector who told me his shocking, fascinating story last year.

I suppose the three of them deserve our congratulations – if you're finding yourself on one of Scientology's enemies lists, you must be doing something right.

Here's a little something that might interest you. Mark "Marty" Rathbun is one of Scientology's most high-profile defectors, having been Inspector General of its Religious Technology Center (intriguingly he still believes in Scientology itself, merely viewing the official version as having been corrupted by the current leader David Miscavige), and since he left the Church he was been gradually spilling the beans (or at least portions of the beans) on his blog.

In his latest post, Rathbun has shared a PDF which he says is a document circulated by the Church's Office of Special Affairs (something he describes as "the Stasi-like intelligence network of the cult of Miscavige"), dated 22 January 2010, which lists all the people considered persona non grata at the grand openings of new Scientology facilities in the western United States. Basically, as other media outlets have been pointing out, it's a Scientology "enemies list".

Looking through it, in addition to famous names such as Hollywood defectors Paul Haggis and Jason Beghe, I was pleased to see that the list features three people who I've interviewed during my time at New Humanist – the seasoned Scientology-watcher Mark Bunker and ex-member Tory Christman, who were both interviewed in my 2008 piece on the rise of the Anonymous movement, and Marc Headley, another defector who told me his shocking, fascinating story last year.

I suppose the three of them deserve our congratulations – if you're finding yourself on one of Scientology's enemies lists, you must be doing something right.